August 15, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
A woman died Saturday after she was thrown from her motorcycle during a crash and hurled over the side of Center Hill Dam plunging several feet into the lake.
E-911 received the call and paged out first responders at 4:26 p.m.
According to the crash investigation by Trooper Dylan Palmer of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, 28-year-old Brooke Murphy of Antioch, TN. was traveling south on Dale Ridge/Wolf Creek Road navigating a curve to the right trying to cross the dam when she struck a northbound GMC truck, driven by 41-year-old Tom Baird of Nashville. After impact, the motorcycle hit the dam’s concrete barrier. Murphy was thrown across the handlebars and over the side of the dam into the lake below. The motorcycle came to a final rest in the northbound lane facing south. The truck pulled to a stop outside of the roadway in a parking lot facing south.
Murphy was reportedly removed from the water and brought by boat to a ramp near the dam where DeKalb EMS and members of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad had arrived, but she was unresponsive although efforts were made to resuscitate. Members of the DeKalb County Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, TWRA and US Army Corps of Engineers Officials were also on the scene